Tuesday, 22 September, 2015

Performing All Nine Symphonies and Five Piano Concertos

Seattle, WA—Music Director Ludovic Morlot and the Seattle Symphony embark on a two-year Beethoven cycle that will traverse all nine of the composer’s symphonies and five piano concertos over two seasons. The project begins on the first Delta Air Lines Masterworks season program on September 24, when Morlot will conduct Beethoven Symphony No. 4, paired with Mahler’s Symphony No. 1. The remainder of the 2015-2016 season will feature Symphony No. 3 on February 11, 13 and 14, and Symphony No. 7 on June 9, 10 and 11. Pianists Alexander Melnikov, Yefim Bronfman and Imogen Cooper will solo on Piano Concerto Nos 1, 3 and 4, respectively, throughout the rest of this season on the Masterworks series.

Concert tickets start at $21 and can be purchased online at www.seattlesymphony.org, by calling the Seattle Symphony Ticket Office at (206) 215-4747 or (866) 833-4747, or in person at the Seattle Symphony Ticket Office on the corner of Third Avenue and Union Street. Tickets may also be purchased through the Seattle Symphony's new iPhone and Android apps by searching “Seattle Symphony” or “Listen Boldly” at Apple's App Store or Android's App Store.

Delta Air Lines is the Sponsor of the Seattle Symphony’s Masterworks Season.

About Ludovic Morlot

French conductor Ludovic Morlot is Music Director of the Seattle Symphony. During the 2015–2016 season Morlot and the Seattle Symphony will present a wide variety of works in concert and release several more recordings on the Orchestra’s label, Seattle Symphony Media. He was Chief Conductor of La Monnaie for three years (2012–2014). During this time he conducted several new productions and concert performances.

During the 2015–2016 season Morlot will return to the LA Philharmonic and New York Philharmonic as well as the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D.C. He has also conducted in Cleveland and Philadelphia and has particularly close relationships with the Boston and Chicago Symphony Orchestras. In Europe, Morlot will this season make his debut with the Geneva Camerata conducting a Homage to Ligeti and will also return to the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. He has also conducted the Czech Philharmonic, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and Staatskapelle Dresden.

Morlot studied conducting in London and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music in 2014 in recognition of his significant contribution to music. He is Chair of Orchestral Conducting Studies at the University of Washington School of Music in Seattle.

About the Seattle Symphony

The Seattle Symphony is one of America's leading symphony orchestras and is internationally acclaimed for its innovative programming and extensive recording history. Under the leadership of Music Director Ludovic Morlot since September 2011, the Symphony was founded in 1903 and is heard from September through July by more than 500,000 people through live performances and radio broadcasts. It performs in one of the finest modern concert halls in the world — the acoustically superb Benaroya Hall — in downtown Seattle. Its extensive education and community engagement programs reach over 65,000 children and adults each year. The Seattle Symphony has a deep commitment to new music, commissioning many works by living composers each season, including John Luther Adams' recent Become Ocean, which won the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Music. The orchestra has made more than 150 recordings and has received 18 Grammy nominations, two Emmy Awards and numerous other accolades. In 2014 the Symphony launched its in-house recording label, Seattle Symphony Media.